Security News > 2023 > May > Enhancing open source security: Insights from the OpenSSF on addressing key challenges

Brian Behlendorf, CTO at the Open Source Security Foundation, shares insights on the influence of his experiences with the White House CTO office, World Economic Forum, and Linux Foundation on leading the OpenSSF and addressing open-source security challenges.

Like all software projects, open source software projects are never over-staffed; they are volunteers struggling not just to write the functionality they need but also to fix the bugs they and others find, paying down technical debt and implementing better security practices and tools often fall way behind in priority compared to new feature work and bug-fixing.

Best practices, on the other hand, provides members of the open source ecosystem with recommendations on how to work with open source, as well as an easy way to learn and apply them.

The OpenSSF Best Practices Working Group provides best practices for open source developers, which includes efforts such as guides on developing and evaluating secure software, automating analysis of open source projects using OpenSSF Scorecard, and efforts on integrating secure software development practices into educational materials.

The OpenSSF also continues to engage with policymakers and regulators, from our work with the Open Source Software Security Mobilization Plan to our recent fireside chat on how government and the open source community can work together at OpenSSF Day North America.

One initiative is the Open Source Software Security Mobilization Plan, an effort we launched in May 2022 to help organize and make concrete efforts that can sustain and secure the open source ecosystem for the long run.

News URL

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2023/05/18/brian-behlendorf-openssf-open-source-security/